Group Involvements in City Politics and Pluralist Theory

The assessments of 75 councilors and mayors in eight cities in the Kansas City metropolitan area provide global measures of group organization, activity, and influence in community politics and measures of their specific involvements in 73 issues that arose in these communities. While variations in group involvement and influence—both in exercising social control and contributing to social production—are reported, the most general findings are that groups are less involved in city politics and their limited involve-ments are less conflictive than suggested by orthodox understandings of pluralist theory. I argue that these results point to the need to reformulate pluralist theory, not abandon it. Keywords group organization, activity and influence, group conflict and collaboration, “power over ” and “power to, ” orthodox and reconstructed pluralism In the twenty-first century, all but the smallest and most isolated local com-munities are characterized by social and moral pluralism. American cities have increasing racial, ethnic, class, and religious diversity. Their citizens have various interests and hold diverse principles of morality and justice. Despite declines in organizational involvements (Putnam 2000), citizens als